By Sanjay Matai

That dreaded virus known as “inflation” has attacked us again! But this time round, Governments and Central Banks across the world will take some time to bring things under control. While the authorities do their bit, you need to do yours. Here are three areas of your finance that will be affected:

1. Your monthly budget

2. Loans

3. Investments

Virus attack

The escalating prices that have upset your budgets could kill your appetite, too! Maybe reworking your budgets around the new prices could make things a little easy for you. This is what people across the world are doing and you could follow suit:

• Buy in bulk from wholesale markets.
• Change your cooking style to consume less oil and gas.
• Ignore costlier branded clothes, shoes etc, for a while.
• Walking is good for health and saves you money. Drive less; save on petrol!
• Save electricity by drying clothes in an open terrace, not in the dryer.
• Save about 25-30% by making pizzas at home.     
• Catch the matinee shows; they are cheaper. 

Killer EMI

The economic boom in the last three to four years brought with it a double-edged sword called ‘Loans’.

Suddenly you were swamped with easy and cheap loans. It helped you acquire your dream house, dream car, dream vacation etc. But due to inflation, this dream has turned into a nightmare.

Now, that higher interest rates are looming over your head, it would be wise to pay off your loans. If you don’t have the cash to pay off the full loan amount, you could pay off a part of it, even if you have to sell off other investments.

You could also go in for an increased tenure instead of increased EMI. This would mean higher interest payout, but at least the monthly cash flows will be more manageable.

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The author is an investment advisor and promoter of wealtharchitects.in. He can be reached at sanjay.matai@moneycontrol.com.

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US subprime woes: Can you be responsible?

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